The Wyoming Cowboys will begin Spring Football Practice on Tuesday, March 26 with the first of 15 spring practices. Enthusiasm is high for the Pokes as they come off four consecutive wins to end the 2018 season. Players returning include a combined 13 starters and 46 lettermen.
Wyoming Football will hold two open practices during the Spring. The first open practice will be an outreach practice at Dick Cheney Alumni Field in Casper, Wyo., on Saturday, April 13. The time of the Casper event will be announced in the near future. The Spring Game on Saturday, April 27 will be played in War Memorial Stadium on the UW campus and will be open to the public, with a 2 p.m. kickoff. All other spring practices are closed to the general public.
Nationally-Recognized Cowboys
Among the Cowboys top returning players are All-America candidates Logan Wilson at middle linebacker, Cooper Rothe at place-kicker and two-time Honorable Mention All-Mountain West selection Tyler Hall, who played nickel back/linebacker and cornerback for the Pokes last season and has been one of the nation’s top kick returners during his career. All three are seniors. Add to that group 2018 First Team Freshman All-American Keegan Cryder at center, and you have a group of key returners leading the Cowboys, who have garnered national recognition.
Wilson has led the Cowboys in tackles the past two seasons, recording back-to-back 100-tackle seasons (119 tackles in 2017 and 103 in 2018). He was a Second Team All-Mountain West honoree in 2017 and was Honorable Mention in 2018. He also earned First Team Freshman All-America honors from both the Football Writers Association of America (FWAA) and USA Today in 2016, and was selected as the Mountain West Freshman of the Year by MW head coaches and media. Wilson will be one of the top linebackers in the Mountain West and the nation in 2019.
Rothe was one of three national finalists for the 2018 Lou Groza Award, which is presented to the nation’s top collegiate place-kicker each season. He made 16 of 17 field-goal attempts in 2018 to rank No. 1 in the nation in field-goal percentage at 94.1 percent. Rothe was voted by Mountain West Conference head coaches and media as the 2018 Mountain West Special Teams Player of the Year, and he earned First Team All-Mountain West honors.
Hall is one of the most versatile players on the Wyoming roster. He earned Honorable Mention All-Mountain West as a kick-off returner in 2017 and earned Honorable Mention All-Conference in 2018 as a nickel back/cornerback. Outstanding in coverage and as a tackler, Hall led the Pokes in passes defended in 2018 with 10 (9 pass break-ups and 1 interception).
Sophomore center Cryder burst on the scene for the Cowboys as a redshirt freshman. He started all 12 games in 2018, starting his first four games at offensive guard (3 games at left guard and 1 at right guard) before being shifted to center where he started the final eight games of the year. At the conclusion of the season, Cryder earned First Team Freshman All-America honors from the Football Writers Association of America.
Young Guns — Quarterbacks
An exciting group of young quarterbacks return for the Cowboys in 2019. Redshirt freshman Sean Chambers led Wyoming to back-to-back victories in his first two career starts at Colorado State and versus San Jose State. He saw his first action of the season in the Utah State game on Oct. 20. In that game, Chambers rushed for 100 yards and completed 3 of 5 passes for 62 yards against the Aggies in a 16-24 loss. In his first start at rival CSU the following week, he rushed for 101 yards and one touchdown and completed 7 of 10 passes for 116 yards and two touchdowns on way to a 34-21 Cowboy road win. In his second start vs. SJSU, he rushed for 129 yards and one TD, while completing 4 of 8 passes for 51 yards and one touchdown as the Pokes won 24-9. Chambers started his third consecutive game against Air Force, but was hurt on Wyoming’s first possession of that game, ending his promising freshman season.
Due to the new NCAA redshirt rule, Chambers was still able to redshirt and has four years of eligibility remaining.
Sophomore Tyler Vander Waal started the first eight games of the season and the last game of the year at New Mexico. He led the Pokes to four victories: at New Mexico State, vs. Wofford, vs. Air Force and at New Mexico. Against Wofford, Vander Waal completed 25 of 42 passes for 224 yards, two touchdowns and keyed a game-winning drive of 80 yards in the final 1:59 of the game, that included completing a pass on fourth down and four yards to running back Xazavian Valladay and completing a game-winning TD pass of nine yards to Rocket Ismail. Vander Waal entered the Air Force game for an injured Chambers and proceeded to lead Wyoming to a 35-27, come-from-behind home win. Vander Waal completed 14 of 26 passes for 225 yards and two passing TDs. He also ran for 22 yards and two touchdowns. Wyoming trailed 27-14 with 8:44 remaining in the game. Vander Waal guided the Cowboys on a drive of 76 yards in 13 plays capped off by him scoring on a five-yard TD run. Then he engineered a 9-play, 58-yard drive that ended with a 22-yard TD pass to Austin Conway that gave UW a 28-27 lead. He was named the MW Offensive Player of the Week for his performance.
A third young Cowboy quarterback, true freshman Levi Williams, will also participate in 2019 Spring Practice. Williams enrolled at Wyoming in January of 2019 after an outstanding high school career at Smithson Valley High School in Canyon Lake, Texas. He earned First Team All-District 26-6A his senior season. 6A is the largest classification in the state of Texas. He was ranked as a three-star recruit by Rivals, 247Sports and ESPN.
Comeback Cowboys
Wyoming will welcome back three veteran starters who were forced to miss the 2018 season due to injuries. Redshirt senior tight end Josh Harshman, senior wide receiver C.J. Johnson and redshirt junior offensive guard Gavin Rush all return in 2019.
Harshman started the first three games of the 2018 season before suffering a season-ending knee injury in game three at Missouri. He was granted a medical harship from the NCAA, getting his senior season back. He has started 12 of 41 career games at Wyoming and enters his redshirt senior season with 23 receptions for 246 yards.
Johnson suffered a knee injury in the 2017 Famous Idaho Potato Bowl, forcing him to sit out all of last season. Johnson has started 11 of 27 career games and has caught 51 career passes for 835 yards and 10 touchdowns.
Rush also missed all of the 2018 season due to injury. He utilized last season as his redshirt year after playing in both his true freshman season of 2016 and his sophomore season of 2017. Rush has started 22 of 27 career games he has played — 19 starts at left guard and three at right guard.
Young Guns Part Two — Running Backs
A pair of talented sophomore running backs return for Wyoming in 2019. Xazavian Valladay played in all 12 games for the Cowboys, rushing for 396 yards on 71 carries and averaging 5.6 yards per carry. He concluded his freshman season with his best game, rushing for 192 yards and two touchdowns in a 31-3 win at New Mexico. Valladay is also remembered for coming up big in clutch situations as a freshman. He kept the game-winning drive alive against Wofford when on a fourth down and four play he made a shoe-string catch for 10 yards, taking the ball down to the Wofford nine-yard line and setting up the winning TD two plays later. Against Air Force in a similar critical situation, the Cowboys were trailing the Falcons 27-21 and faced a fourth down and nine play. Valladay caught a pass from UW quarterback Tyler Vander Waal and ran for 12 yards to keep the game-winning drive alive. With the Pokes up 28-27 later in the Air Force game, Valladay scored the game-clinching TD on a 27-yard scamper.
Fellow sophomore Jevon Bigelow played in nine games for the Cowboys as a true freshman. He rushed for 292 yards on 69 carries and averaged 4.2 yards per carry. Three times during the 2018 season, he rushed for 50 or more yards (55 at New Mexico State, 56 at Missouri and 58 vs. San Jose State). Despite being hampered with a lingering hamstring issue, Bigelow showed great promise in his freshman season.
Valladay and Bigelow combined for 688 rushing yards in 2018 despite running behind First Team All-Mountain West running back Nico Evans, who rushed for 1,325 yards his senior season.
Another young running back who will be returning from a torn achilles injury that he suffered in fall camp in 2018 is redshirt freshman Reow Jackson.
New Redshirt Rule Impact
The new redshirt rule that was implemented by the NCAA for Division I football student-athletes starting in 2018 definitely benefited the Wyoming Cowboys. The new rule allows NCAA Division I football players the opportunity to play in up to four games at any part of a season and still be able to redshirt that season.
Wyoming had five freshmen take advantage of that rule in 2018. All five enter the 2019 season as redshirt freshmen with four years of eligiblity remaining. Those five players who were able to compete in up to four games for the Cowboys and still utilize their redshirt were: Dauson Booker, safety (4 games played); Solomon Byrd, defensive end (3 games played); Sean Chambers, quarterback (4 games played); Zach Watts, offensive guard (3 games played); and Rome Weber, cornerback (3 games played).
New Faces, New Responsibilities on the Sideline
The 2019 Wyoming Football coaching staff will include some new faces and some new roles for Cowboy coaches.
Jake Dickert was elevated by head coach Craig Bohl to the role of Defensive Coordinator. Dickert is entering his third season at Wyoming in 2019 and will continue to coach the Cowboy safeties. He was an integral member of the Wyoming defensive staff that helped the Cowboys rank No. 19 in the nation in 2018 in total defense and No. 28 in scoring defense. Dickert has coached the Cowboy safeties the past two seasons, including coaching three-time First Team All-Mountain West selection Andrew Wingard and three-time captain Marcus Epps. Dickert previously served as a defensive coordinator at Augustana in 2013 and at Minnesota State-Mankato in 2014-15. While the defensive coordinator at Minnesota State-Mankato, he helped lead them to the NCAA Division II playoffs in both 2014 and 2015 and the Division II National Championship Game in 2014. He also coached on Bohl’s staffs at North Dakota State from 2008-10, including an FCS Quarterfinal appearance by the Bison in 2010.
AJ Cooper has been promoted to serve as Wyoming’s Defensive Run-Game Coordinator. Cooper will be serving as a member of the Wyoming coaching staff for his sixth season in 2019. Cooper has coached the Cowboy defensive ends for the past five seasons and has also served as the Cowboys’ special teams coordinator. He will continue to serve in both those roles. He helped mentor All-Mountain West Conference selections Eddie Yarbrough and Carl Granderson during his time at Wyoming. Cooper coached with Bohl at North Dakota State from 2006-2013, including being part of three FCS National Championship teams at NDSU in 2011, ’12 and ’13. Wyoming ranked No. 25 in the nation in rushing defense in 2018.
The Cowboys three new assistant coaches are: Bart Miller, who will coach the offensive line; Shannon Moore, who will be the tight ends and fullbacks coach; and Jay Niemann, who will coach the Cowboy linebackers. Miller comes to Wyoming from Ohio University where he was the offensive line coach. Moore coached the tight ends, special teams and was the recruiting coordinator at East Carolina the past three seasons. Niemann will be entering his 35th season as a college coach in 2019. He most recently served as the defensive coordinator at Big Ten member Rutgers for the past three seasons. Prior to that, he was the defensive coordinator at Northern Illinois.
Another Great Home Schedule in 2019
Wyoming Football has offered fans some of the greatest home schedules in school history over the past 11 seasons and the 2019 schedule will again be a very special one. Southeastern Conference (SEC) member Missouri will highlight the non-conference home schedule as the 2019 season opener on Aug. 31. Missouri will be only the second SEC team in history to visit Wyoming’s War Memorial Stadium. The University of Mississippi is the only previous SEC member school to play in Wyoming. The Cowboys defeated the Ole Miss Rebels in 2004 by a score of 37-32 in War Memorial Stadium. The Missouri Tigers posted an 8-5 record in 2018 and earned a bid to the Liberty Bowl where they lost to Oklahoma State by a score of 38-33.
The 2019 schedule will also feature the 111th edition of the Border War versus rival Colorado State.
In addition to Wyoming’s Aug. 31 home opener versus the Missouri Tigers, UW will host two home games in the month of September on Saturday, Sept. 14 versus Idaho and on Saturday, Sept. 28 versus UNLV to open Mountain West Conference play. The Pokes will play host to New Mexico and Nevada in back-to-back home games against the Lobos on Oct. 19 and versus the Wolf Pack on Oct. 26. It will be the first appearance in Laramie for Nevada and UNLV since 2015. Wyoming will conclude its home schedule with the 111th edition of the Border War versus Colorado State on Saturday, Nov. 23. The last time the Cowboys and Rams met in War Memorial Stadium was the site of the memorable “Snow Game” in 2017 won by the Cowboys 16-13.
Wyoming Athletics’ commitment to bringing high quality non-conference opponents to War Memorial Stadium has been evident the last three seasons. This year’s appearance by Missouri follows the past two seasons that saw Pac-12 members Oregon (2017) and Washington State (2018) appear in War Memorial Stadium. Since 2009, Wyoming has also hosted National Runner-up Texas (2009) and the Nebraska Cornhuskers (2011).
2019 University of Wyoming Football Spring Practice Schedule
Tuesday, March 26 4 or 4:30 p.m. (Practice #1)
Thursday, March 28 4 or 4:30 p.m. (Practice #2)
Saturday, March 30 TBA (Practice #3)
Tuesday, April 2 4 or 4:30 p.m. (Practice #4)
Thursday, April 4 4 or 4:30 p.m. (Practice #5)
Saturday, April 6 TBA (Practice #6)
Tuesday, April 9 4 or 4:30 p.m. (Practice #7)
Thursday, April 11 4 or 4:30 p.m. (Practice #8)
Saturday, April 13 TBA (Dick Cheney Alumni Field in Casper, Wyo., Practice #9)
Tuesday, April 16 4 or 4:30 p.m. (Practice #10)
Thursday, April 18 4 or 4:30 p.m. (Practice #11)
Saturday, April 20 TBA (Practice #12)
Tuesday, April 23 4 or 4:30 p.m. (Practice #13)
Thursday, April 25 4 or 4:30 p.m. (Practice #14)
Saturday, April 27 2 p.m. (Spring Game, War Memorial Stadium, Practice #15)